Bitter News, 9-17-09

• Capital BigLaw-ers unite. “Washington, D.C. has become the favorite area for wealthy young adults, with the nation’s highest percentage of 25-34 year-olds making more than $100,000 a year.” Some 10,327 young adults making more than six figures live in D.C.’s Loudoun county. [Reuters via Yahoo!]

• Berkeley law school released a new report showing there is “strong evidence” that racial profiling goes down in Irvine, CA? Well, from the looks of it, that’s likely exactly what Erwin Chemerinsky did. [Dallas Morning News]

• Boon or boondoggle? The Working Mother Top 50 Law Firms for Women reception sounds like it was hardly worth getting a babysitter. [The Am Law Daily]

• Everyone is always so skeptical of technology’s ability to protect their private information. But when the lawyer you picked to execute your will postmortem steals more than $300,000 from your estate, as Frank P. Jenkins is accused of doing, that’s an even greater betrayal, right? Very uncool. Which is probably why we’re seeing the unveiling of a whole host of sites like Legacy Locker—practically eliminating the need for pesky family lawyers. [Washington Post]

• Often mocked by the Gawker family of gossip sites, Duke Law graduate and infamous pussy hound Tucker Max has a little to be happy about. With all the snark thrown at him about his new movie and perceived female degradation, the tables turned this week when it was announced that Gawker editor Richard Blakeley was arrested on charges of domestic violence. [I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell | HuffPo]

• This is the dawning of the age a fixed-fee legal world. Mayer Brown and Reed Smith are looking at billing overhauls. And a leaked O’Melveny and Myers business plan was made public this week, the decision of which to publish seems grimy. But it revealed their hopes for the future—including efforts to develop a set rate card by fiscal 2012. [Legal Week | ABA Journal]

• Sir Allen Stanford isn’t the only man in the news in need of a legal hero—sperm-in-a-cup-makes-eight-babies reality TV dad Jon Gosselin needed some lawyer love too. His divorce lawyer dropped him cold turkey, but still above a poor-man’s public defender, a new one has leapt to his aid. [E! Online]

• Stephen Colbert stands up for the newest, hottest legally oppressed minority—corporations. Is big business getting a big sock in its mouth? Are corporations people too? Does money = speech? Huh, SCOTUS? Huh?? And WWSSD: What Would Sonia Sotomayor Do if left to her own First Amendment devices? [HuffPo | WSJ Law Blog]